Summary During 1973, 4 new epithelial tumor cell lines were isolated from pleural effusions from breast cancer patients. We describe 3 of these lines: MDA-MB-134, with a mean chromosome number of 43; MDA-MB-175, with a mean chromosome number of 49; and MDA-MB-231, with a mean chromosome number between 65 and 69. We isolated the same cell type from 4 of 10 effusions from MDA-MB-134 and from 6 of 8 effusions from MDA-MB-175. We found that pleural effusions as a source of breast tumor cells to be cultured and studied in vitro have the following advantages: 1) large amounts of material and the possibility of obtaining sequential samples from the same patient; 2) high viability of tumor cells; 3) scarcity or absence of fibroblasts; and 4) the possibility of separating the tumor cells from other “contaminating” cell types by differences in their speed or degree of attachment to the flask. All lines from different patients differed, as seen grossly and microscopically. All lines from sequential pleural effusions from the same patient were apparently alike. No viruses or mycoplasmas were detected in any line.

Nineteen human breast carcinoma cell lines have been established as continuous cultures during the past 6 years in our laboratory. This preliminary report is designed to list the lines by their designated code numbers (MDA-MB) and present a brief summary of their morphological, cytogenetic and biochemical characteristics. Sixteen of our lines were obtained from pleural effusions, two from brain metastases, and one from pericardial fluid. All lines have been shown to be distinct entities and are uncontaminated by HeLa cells or each other. A lq marker chromosome is present in all but one of the lines examined.

Current therapy for advanced prostate cancer is largely based on androgen deprivation and is mostly palliative because all patients eventually relapse with androgen-independent disease. Doxorubicin (Dx), an anthracycline used commonly as a chemotherapeutic agent in relapsed prostate cancer, is a strong inducer of p53 expression and p21(CIP1/WAF1) (p21) transactivation. Previous reports suggest that p21 may have a role in the modulation to chemotherapy-induced apoptosis, prostate cancer progression and androgen regulation. In order to investigate if p21 has a pro-survival role in the response of prostate cancer cells to cellular stress, we exposed two androgen-regulated human prostate cancer cell lines (MDA PCa 2b and LNCaP) to Dx and growth factor withdrawal. We then studied expression of p53 and p21, cell-cycle kinetics and apoptosis. We have found that p53 protein accumulated in a dose- and time-dependent manner after Dx treatment, while p21 expression increased over time with low but decreased with high Dx doses. Apoptosis occurred in parallel with p21 down-modulation. Dx treatment of p53 knockout cells demonstrated that p21 induction was strictly p53 dependent. Reduction of p21 levels in prostate cancer cells with an antisense p21 adenovirus resulted in sensitization to Dx and accelerated onset of apoptosis in response to growth factor withdrawal. The evidence presented here also suggests that caspase activation mediates the apoptosis in this system and supports that p21 may modulate the threshold of apoptosis in prostate cancer. These observations may thus provide implications onto the integration of chemotherapy and androgen ablation.

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